Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 4.17: Vanora

**Disclaimer: Some violence/gore in this chapter.**

The moment they picked up any sounds of battle, they followed it. In this manner, they encountered a few stray fights but it only involved one or two angels each time, which was well within what Vanora could manage. She had her rage and self-hatred to pump up her power, and the angels were slower in both reflexes and attacks purely due to their nature. They also had far less fighting experience as compared to the demons who would constantly butt heads with each other. Vlad would always command the ogres, trolls, or ghouls who were originally fighting the angels to back some other fight up while Vanora took their place.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, they finally encountered their first warrior angels. Vanora did not notice that the sight of warrior angels made Vlad frown slightly. What are warrior angels doing so far out here?

There were five angels hovering in the sky, of which two were warrior angels that bore weapons. The group fighting them were a mix of the orange ogres, trolls, and ghouls that they have seen along the way earlier. They were all glowing white and a chaotic mess. There was no coordination nor teamwork. Some tried to run away, some tried to attack, and some cowered as if they have given up. They ended up easily killed off one by one by the angel with a lance. There were already a large number of dead bodies littered on the ground. Another angel provided perfect support by shooting down anyone that tried to sneak an attack on the other angels. He had a metal bow but his arrows were created out of nothing. It glowed white and disappeared after impact.

"Vanora, be care-" Before Vlad could finish his sentence, Vanora already made her move. He sighed inwardly. She's really not listening to me today. She's also more hasty than usual. Is she still upset with me? The colours of her aura naturally revealed itself to him after that thought. What the... Why're the colours are so complicated? Hate? Anger? Is that... despair too? What's going on?

Vanora quickly realised that the warrior angels were markedly tougher opponents than the normal angels. She had burst into the scene using her flames since she knew that she was outnumbered. As the angels were caught by surprise, all of them were successfully caught in her hellfire and they dropped to the ground in pain. Although they were lying there vulnerable for anyone to attack, the ogres, trolls, and ghouls were still in shock and did not react fast enough.

All the angels she had fought so far would be paralysed by the pain. This time was no different so she made quick work with taking the life of three angels. The next closest one was the angel with the lance. However, in the midst of her leap, several things happened simultaneously. An arrow shot into her back, a lance drew a beautiful arc across the air in front of her, and she saw an arm detached at the elbow flying off. The next thing she knew was that the lance was going straight for her heart. Her pupils constricted and she reacted by reflex. Her left arm shot out to grab the lance then redirected it and pulled it past her head to bring herself closer to the angel. She brought her knee towards the angel's chest and it would have dealt a fatal blow if the angel had not decisively abandoned his weapon to roll away. He stood up and staggered a few steps while doing so. Vanora wanted to go follow up with another attack but the hair on her body rose and she jumped to the side instead. A few arrows struck the ground and disappeared.

Vanora kept the two of them in her field of vision and took stock of the damage done to her body while the other two angels also stared back. They were obviously in pain but they had a determination to fight back that the other angels did not have. This did not mean they could move freely though. Vanora believed that if she did not have the hellfire, she would not have stood a chance against them. It managed to handicap them and brought them down and closer to her level. The large open wound at her elbow was still dripping blood, but it was not as bad as earlier. The small wound on her back was already gradually healing.